Saturday 21 March 2015

TARDIS Travels No.18


Season 18 sees the commencement of John Nathan-Turner's lengthy producership. There will be an awful lot of TARDIS travelling over the next few seasons.

Journey 166: Skonnos, date unknown, to Brighton, England, 1980.
The Doctor dozes. Romana shows she is a fan of Thomas Mann. K9 fetches, and blows a fuse. Not an ideal break at the seaside by any means, but Romana has some other suggestions for a holiday.


Journey 167: Brighton, England, 1980, to Argolis, c.2290.
The war between the Argolins and the Foamasi took place in 2250, and that is described as 30 years ago. Once upon a time Prof. Rubeish used the TARDIS as a blackboard, but now it is the Doctor who chalks equations on it. The Doctor removes the worse-than-useless Randomiser and leaves it behind when they leave.


Journey 168: Argolis, c.2290, to Tigella, 1980.
On its way to Tigella, the TARDIS is first placed in a Chronic Hysteresis time-loop by Meglos, last of the Zolfa-Thurans. The Doctor is repairing K9's damage from that dip in the sea at Brighton. The Doctor and Romana escape the time loop by anticipating it and breaking the sequence. I think. The ship materialises in the jungle near the entrance to the Tigellan city. Unless the Gaztak mercenaries have time travel, the year must be 1980 - as they kidnap the Earthman from that year.


Journey 169: Tigella, 1980, to Zolfa-Thura, 1980.
To stop Meglos activating his super-weapon, the Doctor and Romana take Tigellans Deedrix and Caris with them to his home planet.


Journey 170: Zolfa-Thura, 1980, to Tigella, 1980.
With Meglos and the Gaztaks defeated, the Doctor returns Deedrix and Caris to Tigella.
Journey 171 is unseen, but the Doctor returns the human to Earth.


Journey 172: Earth, 1980, to Alzarius, date unknown.
The TARDIS passes through a CVE (Charged Vacuum Emboidment) and finds itself in the pocket universe of E-Space, which appears to be green. The ship was heading for Gallifrey, after Romana was summoned home by the High Council, but this planet has the same co-ordinates as their homeworld - though negative. The Doctor gives Adric a device which can track the TARDIS. The Marshmen pick up the ship and carry it to a cave - to use it as a battering ram to crack open the Starliner.


Journey 173: Alzarius, - cave to Starliner.
With Romana incapacitated by the spider venom, Adric somehow manages to pilot the TARDIS into the Starliner - just where the Doctor happens to be standing.


Journeys 174 & 175: Alzarius - Starliner to cave and return to Starliner.
The Doctor goes to the cave to retrieve Romana and then takes her back to the Starliner.


Journey 176: Alzarius, date unknown, to unnamed planet, date unknown.
Still trapped in E-Space, the TARDIS materialises on an Earth-like planet which is ruled by a trio of Vampires who originated on Earth. It lands in a forest near their "castle".


Journey 177: Vampire planet - forest to rebel base.
The Doctor returns alone to the ship to search the records for any mention of the Vampires and how to defeat them. He finds what he is after in an old index-card archive system which all Type 40 travel capsules held. This is known as the Record of Rassilon. He takes the ship to the underground base of the rebel group led by Kalmar. The Doctor states that the accuracy of these short trips is due to the relative smallness of E-Space. Oddly, he doesn't use the ship to transport himself and the rebels directly into the Tower.


Journey 178: Vampire planet, date unknown, to location and date unknown.
The ship is guided to a white void, close to a CVE, by Biroc - one of the time-sensitive Tharil race - who is able to enter the ship whilst it is in transit.


Journey 179: Void to location / date unknown.
After Romana and K9 have agreed to stay behind in E-Space to help free more of the Tharils from slavery, the TARDIS momentarily materialises in mid-air above the ornate monochrome gardens where we last saw Romana and K9.


Journey 180: E-Space, date unknown, to Traken, 1981.
The aged Keeper of Traken is able to enter the ship in transit, and he asks the Doctor to come to his planet in order to ease the transition from his Keepership to the next. He is able to adjust the co-ordinates before even appearing on board. The ship materialises in the grove close to where the Melkur statue stands - really the disguised TARDIS of the Master. The Master makes the TARDIS apparently vanish - by hiding it in a pocket of time, just out of synch.
We know the date as Traken is destroyed in the subsequent story, when it is 1981 on Earth.


Journeys 181 & 182: Traken, 1981, to Barnet By-Pass lay-by, England, 1981.
In order to measure a real Police Call Box so that he can repair the Chameleon Circuit, the Doctor lands the TARDIS where he will find one of the few remaining ones in England. The ship lands a few feet away. The Doctor then makes another short hop to materialise around the real Police Box - unaware that the Master has made it here first.


Journey 183: Barnet By-Pass, 1981, to Chelsea, London, 1981.
In order to, quite literally, flush the Master out of the TARDIS, the Doctor decides to land it in the Thames and open the doors. He misses, and the ship lands instead on the Cadogan Pier, at Chelsea Embankment. The Doctor has a confab with the mysterious Watcher on Chelsea Bridge.


Journey 184: Chelsea, London, 1981, to Logopolis, 1981.
The date appears to be the same as Logopolis suffers the same fate as Traken. The Logopolitans are expecting the Doctor's arrival, so he must have phoned ahead. The Master sabotages the Block Transfer Computations which the Logopolitans are using to fix the TARDIS - causing it to shrink with the Doctor still aboard.


Journey 185: Logopolis, 1981, to location unknown, 1981.
With the Doctor travelling to Earth with Tegan in the Master's ship, the Watcher takes Adric and Nyssa to a point outside of the Universe. From here they can see the spreading Entropy field which threatens to destroy everything. Nyssa sees her home planet vanish. Quite why the Watcher does this is unclear as, after a few minutes, he then takes them to Earth anyway.


Journey 186: Point outside the Universe to Pharos Project, Sussex, 1981.
The Watcher materialises the TARDIS in the grounds of the radio-telescope which is seeking signs of intelligent life in the Universe. Four aliens actually turn up, but they manage to miss this. The Pharos Project is used to run the program that halts the Entropy field, but at the cost of the Doctor's Fourth life. Turns out the Watcher was a projection of himself all along, so the regeneration is given a push and another era ends.

Season 19 will see the period of the over-crowded TARDIS, and the Fifth Doctor begins his open door policy...

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